What did you plan for yiur prek-3 or pre-k4 child to do this summer?

[Anonymous]

My oldest just completed PreK. One friend chose to stay at daycare b/c they did not want to deal with all of the teacher work days / vacations / summer.

At the end here is my assessment:
1. There are summer camp options - some are more expensive than others - but there are alternatives for your PreS or PreKer

2. I was very concerned with the transitions for Summer Camp / Spring Break Camp this past year - SURPRISE it was smooth and had no issues with drop off.

3. The quality of the program throughout the school year in our DCPCS trumps anything that was offered at our daycare (a NAEYC accredited program)

4. Financially - the cost of summer camps are more expensive than daycare - but if you look at the comparison of costs throughout the year it is significantly cheaper. (I did the full math and it was ~$9K cheaper after considering costs for food / before and aftercare / spring break camps / drop in care for teacher work days)

[Anonymous]

i had the same concerns when i put my 3 y.o. in DCPS last fall. what would we do in the summer? we could have gone back to our daycare, but our DCPS private aftercare program offers a summer camp, so that's what we are doing. my DS already knows so many of the kids. It's $250/week, includes breakfast and snack (we pack a lunch). it's been great, so far. the only drawback is that we failed to plan our vacation at the right time, so there'll be a 2 week scramble at the end of the summer (when camp ends and school begins). for that, we found a camp at a nearby family playroom ($70/day). after that week, my husband and i will take turns staying home with the boy.

having said all that, yes, looking for daycamps can be a hassle. but they aren't cost-prohibitive.

[Anonymous]

My mom agreed to come stay with us for FIVE weeks. She is leaving end of this week and we will then take vacation as family for a week. for remainder of August, we plan to continue with both kids in half day soccer camp for $100 per week and I think my husband and I will alternate days when we leave work at noon to pick them up. Or maybe we will get another family in the mix so that more kids are together in the afternoon, but only one parent is watching over the kids. 4 kids to one parent is a good mix for all. We live on Capitol Hill and these childcare/childshare situations between parents are quite common.

[Anonymous]

My four year old has been at day-camp most of the summer so far. In August, she'll join her little sister at a local day-care. The camps have been fine, but my biggest concern is that the camps don't have nap-time for the younger set and my kid comes home exhausted every day. We're really looking forward to transitioning her to the daycare in Aug since they offer the nap. I have found the camp process to be a bit of a hassle and will consider a summer nanny next year. My ideal summer for my kids would be a mix of learning, fun, and total down-time. With camp, I think there is a lot of fun, but little else.

Financially, I think that the school-plus-camp option was cheaper than our previous care option of full time au-pair care year round, but not by a lot.